Derek Charke: Raga Gyarah

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Raga Gyarah is a companion work to my earlier quartets: Raga Das, Raga Cha, and Raga Saat. It is not based on an authentic Raga, but rather attempts to emulate the sound world through the use of various extended flute techniques. It is repetitive and meditative in character. Raga Gyarah is in 11/16 time. 'Gyarah' is the English translation of the number eleven in Hindi. Similar to the other Raga flute quartets, Raga Gyarah plays with several polyrhythmic patterns that define the rhythmic flavour of the piece. Flutes 3 and 4 act an isorhythmic talea, perhaps imitative of the tabla. While the other two voices provide melodic figurations. Many sounds are created with a technique whereby the flutist must enunciate the word 'cha' to produce the desired 'toneless' and rough sounding effect.